Telecommunications networks include a variety of computing devices for providing various services. For example, servers, routers, switches and various associated components, such as networking cables, are used for operating networks. Data centers, which are dedicated to housing networking and computing devices and associated components have been constructed to serve computing and telecommunication various networks and Internet as a whole.
Networking, telecommunications and computing devices (collectively “network devices”) are generally mounted in racks in data centers, with each rack housing up to dozens of network devices. Each network device may in turn have multiple network connections. Thus, each rack may have large numbers of network cables running to/from the rack. A rack unit, referred to as a U or RU, is a standard unit of measure that describes the height of network devices. Generally speaking, a standard 19 inch rack has 42 U of device space. A 1 U switch may have upwards of 48 ports for connecting Ethernet, fiber optic, or other networking cables. A standard 19″ rack filled with 48 port 1U switches may have up to 2016 ports and 2016 cables running to it. As the number of cables running through a data center increase, the importance of cable management also increases.
When installing new racks in a data center, cables are often run to racks before the networking devices have been installed or are fully operational. In many cases, network cables can only be installed once the network device is operating. Networked devices often include ports for connecting hot-pluggable transceivers for network communications. The transceivers plug into a port on the network device, receive a network cable, and allow for network communications. Small form-factor pluggable (SFP) devices are compact transceivers that are commonly used in data and telecommunications. SFPs interface with the motherboard of a network device and either a fiber optic or copper networking cable (i.e. Ethernet cables). Common SFP transceivers support Synchronous Optical Networking (SONET), Ethernet, and Fibre Channel. Additional transceiver standards include enhanced small form-factor pluggable (SFP+), 10 gigabit small form factor pluggable (XFP), Quad small form-factor pluggable (QSFP), and gigabit interface converter (GBIC). The different transceivers generally have different physical dimensions and a port on a network device doesn't necessarily accept all of the standards. In some cases, the network device's transceivers have not yet been installed, but the cables that will eventually be connected to the transceivers have already been run to the rack.
When network cables cannot be attached to their designated port, the cables are often hung on the server rack or coiled onto the floor. When it's time to install the cables, the installer often must deal with a multiple unattached cables and determine where the cables should be installed. It is with these and other issues in mind that various aspects of the present disclosure were developed.